Teatro Argentino de La Plata
Brutalist provincial arts centre in La Plata with a 2,000-seat opera house and resident companies.
The first Teatro Argentino opened in 1890, eight years after La Plata was founded, in an Italianate house by Leopoldo Rocchi on Avenida 51. It became the province's leading opera stage and ranked second in Argentina after the Teatro Colón. A fire gutted the building in October 1977 and the shell was later demolished. A competition-winning design by a La Plata team led by Enrique Bares replaced it with a board-marked concrete complex, and construction dragged on for two decades.
The building occupies a full city block and opened its main hall, the Sala Alberto Ginastera, in 1999 with seating for roughly 2,000. The smaller Sala Astor Piazzolla takes chamber music and recitals, the Sala Emilio Pettoruti holds exhibitions, and the TACEC centre houses experimental work. Resident companies include the Orquesta Estable, the Coro Estable, the Ballet Estable and a children's choir, while on-site workshops build sets, costumes and wigs.
Highlights
- Sala Alberto Ginastera, an opera house seating about 2,000
- Resident orchestra, chorus, ballet company and children's choir
- Guided tours of the halls, rehearsal rooms and scenery workshops
- Concrete complex built to replace the 1890 theatre lost to fire
